One of a series of views of the six Royal Dockyards, which were by the mid-eighteenth century the world's largest industrial complex and the state's biggest investment. These engravings present the dockyards as orderly, efficient, and rational; each makes reference to the specific functions of the dockyard represented, which depended in part on location. Deptford and Woolwich dockyards, close to London on the Thames, were too far from the coast to be useful as naval bases and were used for shipbuilding and storing masts and timber. The Deptford vignettes show the stages in the building of a ship, with its launch at the headpiece. The vignettes along the border of this print show the stages in the building of a ship, with its launch at the headpiece, reflecting the shipbuilding function of the Deptford dockyard.

B1978.43.277

1755

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

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Pierre-Charles Canot after Thomas Milton and (?)John Cleveley the Elder, A Geometrical Plan, & North East Elevation of His Majesty’s Dock-Yard, at Deptford, with Part of the Town, &c., 1755, engravingPierre-Charles Canot after Thomas Milton and (?)John Cleveley the Elder, A Geometrical Plan, & North East Elevation of His Majesty’s Dock-Yard, at Deptford, with Part of the Town, &c., 1755, engraving. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection